One of the things we’re discovering as we begin creating the gardens at Earth Rhythms is that we don’t necessarily have to buy every plant we need.
Sometimes we just have to look at what’s already growing here.
There are established plants throughout the gardens that are producing new plants of their own, others we can take cuttings or divisions from, and plenty of little volunteers appearing in places where they can’t necessarily remain.
So rather than simply pulling them out and throwing them away, we’ve been potting them up.
Recently that’s included new calendula plants, African daisies and irises that have been popping up around the gardens.
Today we also lifted a young Japanese Black Pine that had appeared in a bad position close to the house, along with some of the yellow pigface growing around the property.
There are succulents throughout the gardens too, as well as geraniums, so I had been taking cuttings from those and potting them up just after we got here as the ideal time for taking Geranium cuttings is Autumn.
Some of these plants will eventually find their way into other areas of Earth Rhythms. Others, once established and growing well, they may find their way to friends gardens and be swapped for other plants while the bigger hope is that these will eventually become plants we can offer for sale.
It’s something we’re trying to do wherever it makes sense.
Some plants will be grown from seed. Others will come from cuttings, divisions or the new plants that simply pop up around established ones. We’re also propagating from some of the plants we brought to Earth Rhythms with us.
Even my dahlias are becoming part of this.
I’ve been checking the tubers I stored over winter and have selected some of the named varieties I’ve grown for several years and now have numerous tubers of. Rather than waiting another six to eight weeks to plant all of them into the ground, we’ve been trialling a few in pots inside the hoop house.
They’ll have some protection and warmth while we still have the possibility of frost, and if they begin producing good strong shoots, I’ll be able to take some of those shoots as cuttings and hopefully create additional plants. I already have some I had in pots that we brought from our previous garden starting to shoot in the hoop house.
At the same time, we also have our dahlia seedlings — some grown from seed I collected over the past season or two and others from selected seed I’ve bought.
It’s early days, and not everything we try will necessarily work.
But every plant we successfully raise ourselves is one less plant we need to buy. More importantly, we’re gradually learning which plants grow well here and building our gardens and future plant stock around what we’re actually seeing on the property.
Perhaps that’s the part I enjoy most.
Before we buy more, we’re learning to look at what is already growing, thriving and multiplying around us.
Sometimes the beginnings of the next garden — or even the next plant we’ll eventually sell — are already sitting right under our feet.
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